Chapter Rating: K+ - for mild cursing & mildly scary storytelling

Chapter Date: Saturday, May 2nd & Sunday, May 3rd 2015

Where the hell is blue?

This was the question on Theo's mind as he lied in his bed that night. Okay, so not exactly his bed, but his temporary bed. In his temporary bedroom in his temporary home. The large estate was settled in a clearing in the middle of a forest, not terribly far from the town of Little Light, and was decorated in the style that the Japanese are so well known for. The house, though nearly the size of a mansion, was simple and practical, and despite the ethnic decor, Theo could tell it had been Americanized some, maybe to help make them more comfortable. For example, instead of a cot, their beds were double-sized and made up in fluffy down comforters of their respectable ranger colors. But, despite the comforts he was used to, the place was huge and certainly not home. It was going to take some getting used to.

At least he wasn't alone. His best friend, Felix, was right next door and Felix's sister, Bridget, just down the hall. He had grown up with them, and Felix might as well have been his brother. He had always been there, as far back as he could remember. Despite Felix's misguidedness, he was the most loyal person he'd met. Theo had no doubt he'd make a good teammate. Bridget was another story. So she wasn't really as vicious as people thought, she could actually be sweet on the rare occasion that she wasn't acting uptight. He guessed that's what happens when you're 'queen bee' of the high school.

Then there was Archie, ranger yellow. He'd also known Archie for as long as he could remember, but he wasn't very close. Theo's father had been the leader of the previous team of rangers, along with Archie's father and both of Felix's parents. After Archie's father passed away, they only met with him occasionally, though they saw him every day at school. As far as Theo was concerned, Archie was your typical jock, captain of the soccer team, popular with the ladies. He was a looker and he knew it too. He had been known to flirt with Bridget in the past, to no avail (which Theo hoped wouldn't pose too many problems), but then again Archie was known to flirt with everyone.

Not to mention Blue's mother who had also been part of the previous team of rangers, but Theo didn't know much about neither Blue nor his mother. He'd only heard her spoken of briefly, knew her name was Jenna or Julie or something, and that as soon as the war ended, she'd fled back home and married young. They never said why and when he brought it up to his father, Ted, he'd say "Better to leave the past in the past, my boy" and then he'd digress, just like he always did when conversation approached an uncomfortable subject.

The team had arrived to the gosuto (which Theo had learned is the Japanese word for 'sanctum') at the designated time of 2:00 pm, in order to-in the words of their mentor, Oshieru-"fellowship and bond with their companions who they were bound to through blood, sacrifice, and ageless tradition."

Oshieru was not quite what Theo had expected. He was a short, stocky Japanese man, approximately 70 years of age, with leathery skin, and snow-white hair that he wore in a queue trailing down his back and in a tied-off beard that reached past his chest. He had the strangest eyes too, almost colorless, like you could see right through them and you knew they could see right through you.

Oshieru's shadow, whom he introduced as Junichi, was to help with the rangers' training where his own ailing body could not. Junichi was an intimidating, muscular man of about 30 years, who seemed to only communicate in grunts and scowls. He also wore his thick, black hair in a long queue, but kept his facial hair trimmed. Junichi towered at least five inches over Theo's own 5 foot, 10 inch frame. Theo was thoroughly convinced that Junichi could take down Tsuneo and the gang with a single glower and they could all go home.

It was eleven o'clock the next morning and still Blue was nowhere to be seen.

Theo had woken that morning at 7:00 am when their pre-programmed alarms went off. He thought Blue might've arrived in the night, but that wasn't so. He tried to get some sort of information out of Oshieru, but the old man wasn't much of a conversationalist and simply told him to have patience. So he did. Training would have normally begun at eight o'clock, he was told, but since they didn't have a whole team they decided to wait. Instead, they took to one of the training studios and practiced drawing their kanjis. It was something they were all used to, but brushing up couldn't hurt anyone. The symbols had to be done near perfectly for them to work, and when faced with a monster, they had to work.

Theo was finishing the symbol for 'fire' for the umpteenth time when a gong-like sound rang out through the sanctum. It was a moment before he realized the sound was their doorbell. Oshieru was helping Bridget with her kanjis, and Junichi was standing against the wall, arms folded tightly across his chest. The bell sounded again and Junichi remained still as a statue.

"If no one else is going to answer it, I..." Theo trailed off when Oshieru raised his head and sharply nodded at him, with a look that sent chills down his spine. Then again, any time he looked into the man's white eyes he got kinda creeped out.

"It's about time he got here. I can already see it. I'm supposed to be the leader and everyone is going to be disobeying me left and right. I'll have no control. Eventually even Felix will..." Theo trailed off once again when he opened the door to find the blue ranger standing on the stoop. Only the blue ranger was actually a girl. Now that he thought about it, he wasn't sure why he always assumed the blue ranger was a guy. It was kind of ignorant of him, really.

Blue was a slight girl, she must've been a foot shorter than him, though he was probably exaggerating. She had a young face, he thought she couldn't have been over thirteen, but her deep blue eyes, though innocent, told him something different. He quickly noticed a fresh purple bruise blooming from a spot on her left cheekbone and radiating up towards her eye. Her long, blond hair hung in wild, unruly waves all about her and she pushed a piece behind her ear before offering him a small, icy cold hand.

She introduced herself in a soft, albeit slightly monotonous voice, tinged with a clumsy southern accent, "Emmy O'Malley. Blue Ranger. But I guess you knew that already."

He smiled at her for the first time. He hoped she hadn't taken his little rant too seriously. The last thing they needed was trouble between teammates, especially on the first day. The truth was, though he'd never admit it, he was scared. This whole leader thing sort of crept up on him, though he'd prepared for it since he was a young boy, and still he truly did fear failure.

"Theo Merritt. Red Ranger. Here, let me help you with your bags. This isn't everything, is it?"

She had only three medium-sized suitcases and one shoulder bag. That may have seemed like a lot, but not when your stay is indefinite. He and the others had practically moved their whole lives into their new rooms-Bridget and Felix even came with a U-Haul. She blushed slightly and looked at her feet for a moment.

"I do live awful far away."

"Oh, I didn't know that. I don't know anything about you, really." Well that was stupid. Why would you know anything about her? C'mon, man. You're creeping her out. Remember what dad told you. If you don't establish trust now, the team is never going to work. "Uh, so what happened to your face?" Dumbass.

Narrowing her eyes, she quipped with a smirk, "What happened to yours?" and pushed past him into the gosuto, carrying her bags with her.

Blue entered the living area ahead of him and Oshieru acknowledged her by her full name, "Emmeline. How was your trip?"

"Very well, thank you. I hadn't anticipated the train taking so long. I'm sorry I'm late."

"Quite alright."

At this point, Junichi came and gathered her bags in his arms, carrying them up the staircase. Though simple, it was a beautiful thing with intricate rails carved from raw bamboo.

Oshieru gave them all time to sit and get to know one another, saying they would begin their training tomorrow. It wasn't long before Blue was peppered with questions.

"How old are you? You look so young."

She glared at that one. "Seventeen."

"So are you a junior or a senior?"

"I graduated early."

"You said you had to take a train to get here. Where do you live?"

"Georgia."

"That's cool. What part?"

"An hour west of Savannah."

"Why didn't you just fly in?"

She just answered that one with a shrug. She seemed uncomfortable, and she was doing a terrible job of trying to hide it.

"What did you do to your face?"

She flashed a grin that didn't reach her eyes. "I'm clumsy."

The room settled into an awkward silence. Theo took it upon himself to break it. "So I guess we should start lunch... Sandwiches, maybe?"

Oshieru had informed them that they were welcome to the kitchen and everything in it, and that most of their meals would be left up to them. The pantries and refrigerator were stocked with nothing but healthy options, which Theo knew would get tiring but it would help them in the long run. Overweight Power Rangers never did anyone any good. Theo led the way to the large kitchen and began setting out the ingredients onto the wooden countertops. Despite the fact that the rangers' parents were sending money each month to Oshieru to help with living expenses, Theo couldn't help but feel awkward about eating someone else's food. He supposed he'd get used to it eventually.

It was late in the afternoon when Oshieru gathered them all into the main room for a meeting, and they were seated around the large, comma-shaped area.

"You already know much; of Tsuneo and his followers, of the power you gain from your Magatamas, of the sacrifice and-"

At this point Theo was sure this was going to be another droning dialogue from the old man about tradition and sacrifice and exactly what he heard every day growing up from his father.

"-but there is much you do not yet know."

Or not.

"I'll start with the monsters. Firstly, they aren't quite monsters. They are spirits that were granted physical form."

Felix cut in, "What? How?"

"Well, Izanagi gave it to them."

The rangers looked at the man with expressions of equal parts confusion and intrigue.

Oshieru sighed, "I suppose I shall have to start from the beginning: Long ago, there was a great, evil spirit called Izanagi who held much power. One day Izanagi washed his face in the river, and from his right eye was born a daughter called Amaterasu, goddess of the sun, and from his left eye was born a son called Tsukuyomi, god of the moon. From his nostrils, however, was born another son, Susanoo, god of the sea. While Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi used their powers for the good of the earth, Susanoo used his powers for evil. Amaterasu bore spirit children with the sky, Tsukuyomi bore spirit children with the stars, and Susanoo bore spirit children with the earth. Susanoo found favor in his father's eyes, while his siblings were seen as an abomination with their kindness and gentle ways. And so a familial war began. What the good siblings lacked in power, they gained in numbers. They had multiplied many times over and had countless spiritual offspring, and with these spirits gained control over Izanagi and Susanoo. They hadn't the heart to destroy their father and brother, so instead banished them to Yomi (or hell, if you will). They lived for many years before they died, leaving behind their children to guide others to peace. And so the world continued for many years.

"Izanagi and Susanoo, who were thought long dead, had only been waiting. Waiting for their time to take back the earth. They knew that they could do nothing from Yomi, their spirits being vanquished for eternity, but they still had one chance. In order to regain their physical form, they'd have to relinquish most of their power, becoming much weaker beings. And so they did just that. They transformed their spirits into the form of monsters and were sent out of Yomi, as no living thing can be there. Since then they have roamed the earth, destroying every good spirit, and turning the evil spirits into physical beings to join their camaraderie. This small band of monsters soon turned into an army."

They were silent for a while, digesting the story.

"Izanagi and Susanoo are Tsuneo and Mamoru," Theo said.

Oshieru nodded in assent.

"I get the whole take-over-the-world thing, but what exactly are they after?" Emmy asked.

Oshieru answered, "In short, the good spirits. The descendants of Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi."

"Then why the attacks on humans? Why cain't they just find the spirits and go on their merry way?"

"The spirits are only part of the problem. Humans pose a very large threat to their master plan."

Emmy speculated, "So why Little Light?"

"That is something we do not quite know yet. It must have some sort of significance to them, perhaps they are searching for a particular place or thing. We do know that there has been much more spiritual activity here in the past few months."

At this, Archie butted in, "Whoa, whoa. Slow the roll. Nobody said anything about ghosts."

Oshieru smile. "Not ghosts. Spirits. And it is quite likely that if you encounter any at all, they will be friendly. I am most confident that Tsuneo has taken in and transformed nearly all of the evil spirits. While spirits do possess more power than humans, they cannot physically harm you. Not even the evil spirits."

"Well that's comforting. I guess."

So! Welcome to my new story, following a brand new team of rangers! Thanks so much for taking the time out of your day to click on this story, and I hope that you will stay to read it, follow along, review as much as possible, and enjoy it!

I will go ahead and say that while this story will be following the whole group of rangers, it will be mainly revolving around the blue ranger, and I'm trying my best to keep her from becoming a Mary Sue as a result.

Right now, the story is rated 'T', which may change only occasionally for a few chapters later on, in which case I might post those chapters separately. Still, I'll try and keep it at a 'T'. You can find the individual chapter ratings along with contents at the start of the chapter, as well as the current date within the story.

If you would, please check out my profile for more information on the Rangers (including pictures), and their families, and a one-shot about Emmy's background. Thanks again, and enjoy!